Beatles: Rock Band

If you're even remotely interested in The Beatles, today's episode of The 404 is a must listen. CNET Audiophiliac Steve Guttenberg helps us out today for all things Beatles. To set it all up, Steve gives the three of us a lesson in how the band essentially shaped a decade of music and culture and how they became innovators in the way that bands record music. For example, did you know that it only took the band 4 hours to record and mix the song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band?" Later on in the show, Steve tells us about how the Beatles used a vacuum tube-based machine to record their earlier albums and later switched to solid-state, with adverse affects to the low-end sounds. Lots more Beatles trivia on the show!

We also talk extensively about the latest Beatles Remasters and whether or not they're worth the extra investment. Some claim that there are "near-miraculous improvements in the key areas of information retrieval, hidden details, expanded midrange, etc...," but Steve makes the argument that simply remastering doesn't necessarily improve sound quality. Check out the Audiophiliac blog for Steve's Beatles box set review coming soon, but in the meantime you can enter for a chance to win the entire remastered Beatles CD collection!

On September 9, classic rock fans will have a chance to strap on a plastic guitar and jam along with the biggest act in popular music history.

Artfully orchestrated buzz has been building for The Beatles: Rock Band since the start of 2009, and the team of developer Harmonix and publisher MTV Games (and distribution partner EA) hope to provide a bright spot in an otherwise drab video game market with one of the few video game products for the 2009 holiday season that has a real chance of appealing beyond core gamers.

We've gotten our hands on a final retail version of the game (minus the new Beatles-inspired instruments, but our old Rock Band gear worked fine), and gave it a test drive in CNET's AV Lab. Check out this video to see our extremely shaky music skills, and read our hands-on impressions below.

Dan: Music aside, this is essentially the same Rock Band game you've been playing for two years, but with nicely done overhauls of the menus, graphics, and interface, including some very cool animated Beatles segments. The biggest change to the actual gameplay is the inclusion of three-part vocal harmonies (you'll need three USB mics). We found out the hard way that these songs are actually pretty tough to sing, and nailing the harmonies is even tougher. … Read more

What is it with the Beatles and nines?

As my colleague Caroline McCarthy pointed out in March when the launch date (September 9, 2009) for The Beatles: Rock Band was announced, the band's song "Revolution 9" ends with the words, "number nine, number nine, number nine."

So clearly, the date 09/09/09 has at least some symbolic significance for the band. And now, in addition to that date being the launch of the Rock Band title, it was announced Tuesday that on that same day, the Beatles will release a CD box set of … Read more

Beatles lovers will soon be able to feel what it's like to sing and play with the Fab Four in the interactive game The Beatles: Rock Band. But what famous Beatles tunes will be featured on the disc?

Rock Band makers MTV Games and Harmonix revealed 19 more songs Tuesday, bringing the total of known tracks to 44 and leaving the final tune a mystery.

The Beatles: Rock Band lets players sing, strum the guitar or bass, or hit the drums to play with John, Paul, George, and Ringo as they tour the world. Players can join in with … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--The first couple of weeks of September are going to be a banner time for music video games. On September 9 (09/09/09), the much-anticipated The Beatles: Rock Band will hit store shelves, just eight days after Guitar Hero 5 gets its chance to rock living rooms everywhere.

With the Beatles game, it's easy to imagine long lines and huge sales figures. After all, this will be the first time that any of the recent slew of music-oriented video games will feature any Beatles songs, let alone dozens of them.

But with Guitar Hero 5 (see video … Read more

It's a free-for-all gripe fest as we talk about our personal frustrations with the PS3, AT&T, the iPhone, and whatever else was crossing our minds at that point.

From cyberdoormen and using your baby's mama for an iPhone replacement at the AT&T store, to Scott finding pleasure in getting Julie so worked up that she accidentally drops a naughty word and Joseph's failed attempt to pit Scott and Julie against each other...it's all on the table.

We're also holding a contest for the best Digital City desktop wallpaper creation (not … Read more

Episode 36 of the Digital City, where Dan reports back from the E3 video game trade show, we check out the new MacBook laptops, and Joey jumps on the Palm Pre bandwagon.

Note that there are two versions of the show available now, the traditional audio stream, and our exciting, new video version -- check out both below.

>>Subscribe to video version of the Digital City on iTunes >>Join the Digital City Facebook fan page >>Need more? Follow Dan on Twitter!

LOS ANGELES--If you were among the thousands of people at Microsoft's E3 press briefing on Monday, it's a pretty sure bet that the appearance on-stage there of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Yoko Ono was one of the most unexpected things imaginable.

But if you think about it, the very existence of the game that led to their showing up during the Xbox press briefing, Harmonix and MTV Games' "Beatles: Rock Band," is even more surprising. After all, the Beatles have, over the years, maintained a stranglehold over control of their music. For example the Beatles … Read more

Maggie Reardon from News.com joins Natali and me to talk about a host of cell phone news, including new iPhone patents, legislation around sexting, and of course, courier pigeons that deliver contraband cell phones to inmates. I mean, we all saw that last one coming...right?

eBay buys Gmarket http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/04/16/technology/business-us-gmarket-ebay.html

Apple iPhone patents http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10220939-37.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

PC sales are down but it is not that bad http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10220392-92.html http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/dell-still-struggles-hp-and-acer-grow/… Read more